Tuesday, 28 November 2017

The calling out of sexual harassment and assault in north amerikkkan society ( and indeed, the world at large ) is something that is long overdue, especially on the incredible scale it's being done on. This is something that perhaps will lead people to question this entire society, system, and what it's founded on. Beware of the backlash, because the assholes of this planet will not like their power and system being challenged or questioned in any way. Fuck 'em. We'll stand our ground and continue to gain strength.

A Righteous Upsurge Against Sexual Assault... A Crucial Step Toward a Different World

Also read: On males, well-meaning and otherwise.

Look at all these beautiful children who are female in the world. And in addition to all the other outrages which I have referred to, in terms of children throughout the slums and shantytowns of the Third World, in addition to all the horrors that will be heaped on them—the actual living in garbage and human waste in the hundreds of millions as their fate, laid out before them, yes, even before they are born—there is, on top of this, for those children who are born female, the horror of everything that this will bring simply because they are female in a world of male domination. And this is true not only in the Third World. In “modern” countries like the U.S. as well, the statistics barely capture it: the millions who will be raped; the millions more who will be routinely demeaned, deceived, degraded, and all too often brutalized by those who are supposed to be their most intimate lovers; the way in which so many women will be shamed, hounded and harassed if they seek to exercise reproductive rights through abortion, or even birth control; the many who will be forced into prostitution and pornography; and all those who—if they do not have that particular fate, and even if they achieve some success in this “new world” where supposedly there are no barriers for women—will be surrounded on every side, and insulted at every moment, by a society and a culture which degrades women, on the streets, in the schools and workplaces, in the home, on a daily basis and in countless ways.

Bob Avakian, BAsics 1:10

Includes "The New Synthesis and the Woman Question: The Emancipation of Women and the Communist Revolution—Further Leaps and Radical Ruptures," Part III of Unresolved Contradictions, Driving Forces for Revolution (2009). (p 18)

This week we begin a page devoted to the upsurge against the harassment, abuse and assaulting of women in this society, especially in workplaces, but also through every nook and cranny of society. We will feature news on this struggle, analysis and commentary from ourselves and others, and key works grounded in Bob Avakian’s new synthesis of communism that shed light on this. Our aim: to “unleash the fury of women as a mighty force for revolution.”

First, a key dynamic, a prism through which to understand what is raging in society, from Bob Avakian (BA):

The whole question of the position and role of women in society is more and more acutely posing itself in today’s extreme circumstances. It is not conceivable that all this will find any resolution other than in the most radical terms.... The question yet to be determined is: will it be a radical reactionary or a radical revolutionary resolution, will it mean the reinforcing of the chains of enslavement or the shattering of the most decisive links in those chains and the opening up of the possibility of realizing the complete elimination of all forms of such enslavement?

This crystallizes the overall stakes in society in the current juncture. Something has been ripped open. What women have too long been forced to accept as “the way it is”—enduring violence, torment and humiliation as part of what is “normal”—has been shattered by women having the courage to go public, expose the oppressive actions and, in some cases, crimes of powerful men, and throw the whole order of social relations between men and women and the dominance of the former over the latter into the air.

But what happens now—whether this struggle goes further, toward the full liberation of women and the emancipation of all humanity, or is in the end confined to a few small reforms, or is shoved back into the bottle altogether and punished with even more open degradation and enslavement by the backlash that is even now gaining strength—has great importance for women and, indeed, all of humanity.

A watershed moment: Yes, IF...

Many people have called this a “watershed moment.” They correctly and righteously say there must be no toleration for what has been exposed and no going back to the enforced silence of just a few months ago. But things are still very fraught. What has erupted—what has been courageously torn open—must go forward in its own right, and link up with other streams in society, lest it die down and the verdicts of right and wrong get reversed again, if not openly (at least at first) then in actual practice.

With the election of Trump and Pence, those fighting for a reactionary resolution to this oppression gained tremendous momentum; this was a great leap backward. In the past few decades a revanchist and virulent sense of male entitlement has been fanned, and linked into a whole fascist move in society. This has drawn from the wells of both Penceian Christian fascism and “guy culture” on steroids (the latter promoted by fascist Trump operatives like Steve Bannon and Milo Yiannopolous). The election of Trump after the exposure of the Access Hollywood tape and after a campaign against Clinton that was openly misogynist (with signs at his rallies saying “Trump That Bitch”) gave this a “stamp of approval” and tremendous momentum. This grotesquely cruel and degrading view of women now has the power of a fascist regime behind it, a regime clawing and fighting to consolidate its position.

Rising against this was the massive and unprecedented Women’s March in January. And both these trends—the ugly assaultive Trump-Pence fascism and the righteously outraged response—have fed into the current moment full of struggle, possibility... and danger.

How all this gets resolved has meaning here in several dimensions. First, the actual struggle itself must go forward and spread, to all sections of society. Different standards have to be fought for and spread. We cannot afford to “go back to normal.” “Normal” has been exposed as a daily horror for huge sections of women. We need much more overturning of that “normal,” much deeper examination in every sphere, much more transformation of people’s ideas and values, and a much greater sense among the oppressed of their own potential strength.1

At the same time, what happens here must be linked to the urgent struggle against the Trump/Pence regime. If Trump and Pence succeed in their fight to consolidate a fascist form of rule, they will slam shut the space that has been opened—with a vengeance. What follows that would be a still greater level of horror. Refuse Fascism has documented what this regime has done in even its first few months, as it fights to consolidate its grip. Should it succeed, we will be facing a handmaid’s-tale future for real. It’s important to bring this powerful upsurge and the issues that it has raised into the battle to drive out that regime... and to bring the battle to drive out the regime to the women, and men, now surging into action.

The ultimate answer, though, must not be to return to the best of what was... to a society that makes a show of recognizing (some) formal equality for women, but continues to subordinate them in every sphere. So long as the taproot of patriarchy—the division of society into classes, into exploiter and exploited—remains, today in the form of capitalism-imperialism, there can be no emancipation of women. This has been analyzed in depth elsewhere—you can find it on this page—and that analysis needs to be spread.

In short, people need to know that a better world—without all this cruelty and madness—really IS possible. To get to that world, we need a revolution aimed at overturning capitalism-imperialism. We need a revolution that, from there, sets itself the goal of uprooting and abolishing the whole division of humanity into different classes, into exploiter and exploited... the production relations on which that division rests... the oppressive institutions—like patriarchy, the oppression of whole peoples, and much else—that feed off of and reinforce those relations... and the ideas which reflect and reinforce it as well. We need a revolution that takes the liberation of women as a critical, dynamic and absolutely necessary component of the emancipation of humanity. In short, we need a communist revolution, guided by the New Communism of Bob Avakian.

So, yes, this MUST be a watershed moment, in many different dimensions. All this underlines even more the insistence in BA’s statement in October that this upsurge “is right, righteous, and long overdue, and should be supported, encouraged, spread, and defended against counter-attack.” It is important in its own right... and it is critically important to stepping into a whole different future.

In the next period, as we give full coverage to this upsurge and do our best to speak to the questions raised by it and shine a light on the driving forces beneath it, we want to hear from you, our readers. What is your story? What is your experience in fighting this? What are your thoughts about what is being revealed and where things need to go?

1. One thing this upsurge has revealed is how we become inured to the horrors that pass for “normal” in this society. In “Unresolved Contradictions, Driving Forces for Revolution,” Bob Avakian raises a series of questions that lay this bare:

How long does it take before the carefree play of female children—yes, in countries like the U.S.—gets turned into cutting themselves, in response to an unbearable feeling of worthlessness and despair, and often as a result of abuse; or starving themselves in an attempt to conform to the dominant and incessantly propagated notions of female beauty, with which their worth as a human being is equated and to which it is reduced? How long does it take before many girls who show intellectual curiosity and the spark of wanting to know about the world, and of learning about the world, learn instead to stifle that, to "play dumb" and stop speaking up, because it becomes all too clear to them that boys and men feel "threatened" by strong, competent and intelligent women? Or girls who, once having been actively involved in the joy of playing sports, give that up in order to be perceived as more "feminine." Girls in general who, whatever else may happen in their lives, will be insulted and assaulted by pornography and other degradation of women, soft core and hard core, from mainstream advertising to the most extreme and grotesque and perverse. Who will learn to accommodate themselves in various ways—or will be encouraged, and in many ways coerced, into accommodating themselves—to the oppressive relations that prevail and predominate in society, particularly as regards women; or, on the other hand, will be encouraged and will learn to become hardened and cynical, to treat everyone and everything, including themselves and their own bodies, as commodities, and will be further degraded and debased in the process; will learn to lower their sights and not to dream and think of fully taking part in every sphere of society nor dare to rise up and change society, including in the way that it treats women? All this too, is laid out for female children, including in countries like the U.S., even before they are born. [back]

Monday, 27 November 2017

The actual fascists whine long and loudly about the so called "left wing fascists" when they don't get to spread their poisonous filth anywhere they fucking want to. They already have the major media outlets working for them, but they want it all. People have been fighting against misogyny , homophobia, and racism for many years, and now they're expected just to let the assholes run rampant over everybody and everything all in the name of some fake-ass "free speech " and "democracy ". Fuck that. Not all ideas are equally valid, and their value to be determined in the "marketplace of ideas ". Read this entire thing, assholes.

Some thoughts on combatting the fascist approach to truth

From:Six Resolutions of the Central Committee of the Revolutionary Communist Party, USA - January 1, 2016

Resolution 1:

The new synthesis of communism brought forward by Bob Avakian, on the basis of 40 years of revolutionary work, represents a qualitative advance in the scientific approach to making revolution and emancipating humanity. It provides the foundation and point of departure for a new stage of communist revolution that is urgently needed in the world today.

Where there is oppression, there will be resistance—the masses of people will continually rise up against their conditions of oppression and those who enforce this oppression. But, without the necessary scientific theory and leadership, the struggle of the oppressed will be contained, and remain confined, within the system which is the source of oppression, and the horrors to which the masses are subjected will go on, and on. The new synthesis and the leadership of Bob Avakian represents and embodies the scientific understanding and approach the masses of the oppressed need to make the revolution they need—a revolution whose ultimate goal is a communist world—to emancipate themselves and ultimately humanity as a whole.

As Bob Avakian himself has emphasized, the new synthesis:

represents and embodies a qualitative resolution of a critical contradiction that has existed within communism in its development up to this point, between its fundamentally scientific method and approach, and aspects of communism which have run counter to this.

And:

What is most fundamental and essential in the new synthesis is the further development and synthesis of communism as a scientific method and approach, and the more consistent application of this scientific method and approach to reality in general and in particular the revolutionary struggle to overturn and uproot all systems and relations of exploitation and oppression and advance to a communist world. This method and approach underlies and informs all the core elements and essential components of this new synthesis.

As with all scientific approaches to understanding and transforming reality, communism must continue to develop, and it has undergone a qualitative development with the new synthesis, which is a leap beyond, and in some important ways a rupture with, what has gone before. Recognizing this is the essential dividing line today between genuine revolutionary communists and those who may profess to be for communism and revolution, but who in fact are not. Just as, in 1975, being a communist meant being a follower of Mao and the path that he had forged, so today being a communist means following Bob Avakian and the new path that he has forged.

From a Reader:

On September 13, 2017, former White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer was a guest on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Whatever Kimmel’s thinking was, perhaps that Spicer was now going to apologize for being Donald Trump’s shill, for presenting lies as facts, or perhaps expose some of Trump’s bullshit, none of this happened.

In a perfect example of conciliating, collaborating, accommodating with, and normalizing fascism, Kimmel’s questions and mild challenges were allowed to be deflected by Spicer as he explained that he is not distancing himself from Trump, that Trump “has a good heart” and it was Spicer’s job to “represent the president’s voice.” In other words, like a good Nazi, Spicer was only following orders. As a small-time bootlicker with no moral courage, none of this is surprising.

But the most telling statement Spicer made in response to Kimmel’s questions was the following: When pressed on whether facts are facts, Spicer said that people can “look at a set of facts and come to different conclusions, different opinions.” And “Disagreeing with the facts is what makes our country great.” This BS is completely in line with bourgeois ideology and its definition of “free speech” and is completely in line with a fascist approach to “truth.”

What Spicer is peddling here is the philosophy that everyone’s ideas are their personal property, all ideas are valid in the “marketplace of ideas,” and the ideas that win out must be true. But, an actual search for a deeper understanding of reality and for truth is not a goal of the “marketplace of ideas.” The fact that some ideas will have more weight and importance because they come from persons in authority or with more prestige is not questioned, and the result, ultimately, is not truth but “might makes right.”

Bob Avakian has spent serious time in the development of a scientific approach to epistemology because how people think can either enlighten people or paralyze them. In the recent excerpt from Communism and Jeffersonian Democracy (revcom.us #509), he says:

Understanding the importance of the “battle of ideas,” of not suppressing unpopular or unconventional thinking, in order to have the richest process in seeking an understanding of reality, and in order for the people in society to feel that they have air to breathe and room to be “different” and to express different ideas: this is a crucial dimension of the kind of society that we want to live in and that masses of people would really thrive in; and it is also crucial in order to arrive at the truth in fundamental terms. But there is a vast difference, a crucial distinction, between that and the notion that any individual’s ideas are her/his private property and should in effect operate in competition with other people and their ideas—that all this should contest in a “market place of ideas” to see which one can, to put it rather baldly, command the highest exchange value. This is not the same as determining which one actually contributes the most to getting to the truth, and is not simply an appreciation of the way in which the contestation of ideas will help to create the right atmosphere for the kind of society we want, but it gives expression to the notion of ideas as commodities, competing to command a greater remuneration, in one way or another (even if this is not always directly monetary). So, too, the notions and the practice of “intellectual property rights” are an extension of, or are bound up with, the idea of “the free market place of ideas.”

A perfect example of the “free marketplace of ideas” in which “might makes right” is the battle for Berkeley. In order to protect the right of fascists to speak in favor of ideas that have been proven untrue, the campus was locked down with heavy police presence and fascists were offered thousands of dollars to speak. The article by Sunsara Taylor with revcom.us writing group (revcom.us #508 & #509) “Does ‘Free Speech’ TRUMP All Else? A Response to Berkeley Chancellor Carol Christ,” breaks down these bourgeois-democratic ideas about free speech and the “marketplace of ideas” and shows the actual harm being done by fascists in the name of “free speech.” This entire article should be studied for the incisive way it slices through these arguments and gets to the heart of the matter:

This is the “free marketplace of ideas” at work in capitalist society, and a good example of why that “marketplace”—like the capitalist market that gives it its metaphor—in actual practice reproduces relations of power and domination, silences the powerless, and contributes to ignorance and/or reactionary thinking on major political and social questions. Arrayed against massive funding, think tanks, control of the media and the academy, those who represent the dispossessed are in most cases effectively rendered voiceless and marginalized unless they shape their ideas to those dominant interests.

Further, it is a myth that the free contestation of ideas—and people’s ability to “compare and contrast” and engage in critical thinking—can ONLY take place through orderly respectful engagement. In cases where, in the face of disproportionate power, influence, and official backing of one side of the contestation (e.g., these fascists, backed by the university administration and ultimately dovetailing with the prevailing ideas of the dominant institutions of society), the other side (in this case the relatively powerless students and others) choosing to resist rather than engage in a “respectful and orderly” way can actually lead to MORE and quite vigorous engagement with the contested ideas in the period following. As stated in “The Middlebury Controversy: Points of Orientation,” “A correct protest can definitely fuel further engagement and contestation, and it is a myth that this just serves to ‘suppress’ ideas!”

These ideological questions: the nature of truth and how to arrive at it vs. the “marketplace of ideas,” the need to engage in critical thinking and to oppose oppressive, in fact fascist, ideology vs. orderly respectful engagement with fascists and their ideas--these are among the ideological questions facing the party and Refuse Fascism as we say NO to fascism in the name of humanity and build a movement that must grow and put an end to the Trump/Pence regime.

Sunday, 26 November 2017

Last night I saw the magnificent Vancouver hardcore band Policy Of Truth . Straight up no nonsense beefy two guitar attack with raging nihilistic vocals, reminiscent of Negative Approach, of whom they happened to do a cover. Their tape is fucking awesome. Go see them when you get the chance . Before them were Victoria locals Shallow End . Unapologetic metallic ( at times ) tight mid-tempo hardcore, delivered in the style Victoria was into in the early 2000s. This is not a diss . I'm happy these guys are bringing it back. They fucking do it well. All of this went down in my new favourite venue , the all-ages Subculture Club. If you do get there, please refrain from drinking and smoking inside , and obviously no fighting or other related idiocy. Thank you.

Saturday, 25 November 2017

Out came the smarmy motherfucker with his well rehearsed tears to apologize for residential schools, without calling it what it is, genocide. Some Indigenous People were willing to accept the apology and move on, while others decided to boycott the event and not accept the flimsy words from the child of privilege. Words are only words. It would be difficult to move on with the echoes of the screams of your ancestors ringing in your ears. Read this article .

Trump Campaign Official to Plead Guilty to Child Sex Trafficking

Former Oklahoma state senator Ralph Shortey, who served as President Trump’s Oklahoma campaign chair, is expected to plead guilty to child sex trafficking on November 30, NBC News reports.

In March 2016, police found Shortey in a Super 8 Motel in Moore, Oklahoma, with a 17-year-old boy whom he was allegedly paying for sex. Police also found Shortey with child pornography featuring a prepubescent girl.

According to court documents, Shortey connected with the boy through Craigslist in February 2016, and obtained a picture of the young man’s genitals. In March 2016, the young man said he needed money for spring break, and Shortey asked if he was interested in “sexual stuff.” Days later, police found Shortey and the boy at the motel.

In Oklahoma, the age to consent to sex is 16, but child prostitution, also called child sex trafficking, applies to anyone under 18. In exchange for pleading guilty to these charges, prosecutors are expected to drop three charges of possessing child pornography.

According to NBC News, Shortey has historically presented himself as a “family values” Republican. He has supported bills targeting gay and transgender people, and has always been committed to maintaining his image as a good Christian.

Shortey now faces a minimum of ten years in prison for the child sex trafficking charge.

Wednesday, 22 November 2017

The piece of genocidal shit known as ratko mladic, bloodthirsty leader of the Bosnian serbs, has been convicted of crimes against humanity. His lawyers are , of course, going to appeal. His brave "army" were couragoeus soldiers, skilled at killing, raping, and destroying entire villages populated with unarmed civilians. What needs to be brought out in all of this is the complicity of western military and political leaders, particularly the lowlife piece of shit that is the kkkanadian hero lewis mackenzie. This asshole regularly parrots the serb paramilitaries' official line, and continues to do so today. It's a good thing there's a fucking highway named after him in ontario.

Bosnian Serb military chief Mladic convicted of genocide

Mladic, known as the Butcher of Bosnia, found guilty on 10 of 11 counts; lawyer says he will appeal

Bosnian Serb military chief Ratko Mladic during an angry outburst in the Yugoslav War Crimes Tribunal in The Hague on Wednesday. The UN Yugoslav war crimes tribunal ordered Mladic out of the courtroom before reading findings of guilt on 10 of 11 charges. (Associated Press)

The UN's Yugoslav war crimes tribunal convicted Bosnian Serb military chief Gen. Ratko Mladic on Wednesday of genocide and crimes against humanity, and sentenced him to life in prison for atrocities during Bosnia's 1992-1995 war.

Mladic, 75, was found guilty of commanding forces responsible for crimes including the worst atrocities of the war — the deadly three-year siege of the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo, and the 1995 massacre of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys in the eastern enclave of Srebrenica, which was Europe's worst mass killing since World War II.

At the memorial centre in Potocari, near Srebrenica, a Bosnian woman raises her arms upon hearing Mladic's sentence. (Amel Emric/Associated Press)

His lawyer, Dragan Ivetic, told journalists that Mladic will appeal.

A three-judge panel in The Hague court, formally known as the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, convicted Mladic of 10 of 11 counts in a dramatic climax to a groundbreaking effort to seek justice for the wars in the former Yugoslavia.

Judge Alphons Orie read out the judgment after ordering Mladic out of the courtroom over an angry outburst.

"The crimes committed rank among the most heinous known to humankind," Orie said.

Mothers of Srebrenica's victims clapped when the convictions were read out.

Nura Mustafic, one of the Mothers of Srebrenica and other Bosnian organizations, wipes away tears as she reacts to the verdict. (Phil Nijhuis/Associated Press)

Mladic's son, Darko Mladic, said: "I'm not surprised. The court was totally biased from the start."​

Bosnians and Serbs watched from near and far as the long-awaited climax approached. Wednesday's judgment marks the end of the final trial at the tribunal, which was set up in 1993, while fierce fighting was still raging in Bosnia.

Emotions ran high outside the courtroom, with a small skirmish reflecting lingering tensions between Serbs and Bosnians over the trial and the war.

Mladic gives a thumbs-up as he appears for the pronouncement of the Trial Judgement for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on Wednesday. (Michel Porro/Getty Images)

Then Mladic's lawyer asked for a delay because the general was suffering high blood pressure. The judge refused, and Mladic burst out with criticism and was ordered to leave the room.

Prosecutors had sought a life sentence, while Mladic's defence lawyers said he should be acquitted on all counts.

Orie said the court confirmed that "genocide, persecution, extermination, murder and the inhuman act of forcible transfer were committed in or around Srebrenica" in 1995. Previous judgments have said it was genocide. However, Orie said the court is "not convinced" of genocidal intent in six other municipalities, in line with previous judgments.

'The epitome of evil'

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein has hailed the conviction of Mladic as a "momentous victory for justice."

In a statement, he said Mladic is "the epitome of evil, and the prosecution of Mladic is the epitome of what international justice is all about."

"Mladic presided over some of the darkest crimes to occur in Europe since World War II, bringing terror, death and destruction to thousands of victims, and sorrow, tragedy and trauma to countless more," he said.

"Today's verdict is a warning to the perpetrators of such crimes that they will not escape justice, no matter how powerful they may be, nor how long it may take. They will be held accountable," Zeid said.

After the verdict, Fikret Alic holds holds a copy of Time magazine bearing his image. The Bosnian man became a figurehead for the suffering of Bosnians during the war when he was photographed as an emaciated prisoner behind the wire of a Bosnian Serbian prison camp. (Phil Nijhuis/Associated Press)

100,000 died in the conflict

The conflict in the former Yugoslavia erupted after the breakup of the former multi-ethnic federation in the early 1990s, with the worst crimes taking place in Bosnia. More than 100,000 people died and millions lost their homes before a peace agreement was signed in 1995. Mladic went into hiding for around 10 years before his arrest in Serbia in May 2011.

Mladic's political master during the war, former Bosnian Serb president Radovan Karadzic, was also convicted last year of genocide and sentenced to 40 years. He has appealed the ruling.

The man widely blamed for fomenting wars across the Balkans, former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, died in his UN cell in 2006 before tribunal judges could reach verdicts in his trial.

And read more about the scumsucking shitbag (and who pays him) right here :

Former U.N. Leader MacKenzie Speaks on Behalf of Serb Forces

By Dele Olojede and Roy GutmanNewsday

UNITED NATIONS

The former U.N. commander in Bosnia has participated in a speakers tour funded by a Serbian-American advocacy group that seeks to dispel the internationally accepted view that Serb fighters were principally responsible for the mass killings, rape and ethnic cleansing that has destroyed the former Yugoslav republic.

In an interview with Newsday, retired Canadian Maj. Gen. Lewis MacKenzie said he has done nothing unethical or improper in connection with last month's tour. MacKenzie last week acknowledged in a telephone conversation from Ottawa that his tour was funded by the group, SerbNet, but said he does not know how much he was paid. In his public appearances, including congressional testimony last month, MacKenzie never disclosed SerbNet's financial support.

MacKenzie said that he customarily receives up to $10,000 an appearance and that he "wouldn't be surprised" if SerbNet paid that rate through his agent.

Accepting money from an advocacy group violates no laws or official policies of the United Nations, but a top U.N. official, who asked to remain anonymous, said, "We quite frankly are displeased with his lack of judgment." MacKenzie, who served as the top U.N. peacekeeper in Bosnia for six months in 1992, argues that all the parties in the Balkans war are to blame for atrocities.

"Dealing with Bosnia is a little bit like dealing with three serial killers -- one has killed 15, one has killed 10, one has killed five," MacKenzie testified before the House Armed Services Committee last month. "Do we help the one that's only killed five?"

That view puts MacKenzie at odds with reports by the United Nations, the United States and international human rights groups that have found the Serbs primarily responsible for the ethnic cleansing and mass killings. Serbian groups support MacKenzie's position, which tends to minimize the role of Serbian fighters.

It was one such group, the Serbian American National Information Network -- or SerbNet -- that sponsored MacKenzie, according to the group's newsletter and treasurer Milan Visnick. The Chicago-based group was formed by several professional, business and religious organizations representing ethnic Serbs in the United States to "articulate the Serbian position" because "Serbs have suffered mightily at the hands of the world media in the last year," according to the founders.

"We were very pleased that there was someone to speak more favorably of the Serbs," said Visnick, who refused to discuss the financial details of the trip, but confirmed that SerbNet was a sponsor. In a recent internal bulletin, SerbNet said the MacKenzie tour -- and other efforts by Serbia's American sympathizers -- have led to the organization's "most successful month yet in bringing the Serbian-American perspective before the wider public."

During his trip, MacKenzie, 53, gave more than a dozen speeches and interviews questioning the value of U.S. military intervention to rescue Bosnia's Muslims. He repeated his oft-stated assertion, for example, that "the vast majority" of cease-fire violations that he observed in Bosnia were committed by Muslims.

"My position is always of objectivity because I don't blame only the Serbs," he told Newsday. "I'll continue to say things exactly the way I see them."